This story was originally published by Real Clear Wire
By Newt Gingrich
Real clear wire
President Donald Trump's decisive victory in Iowa this week belongs not just to President Trump, but to the American people as well.
And despite every media attack, political lawsuit, and old-guard establishment effort to destroy Trump and force him out of the election (including withholding his name from the ballot), the people of Iowa stood up and said, “No, he's our candidate.”
With more than seven Republican candidates to choose from, 51% of Iowans chose President Trump. With three other candidates, an outright victory in a three-way race is a political achievement. Trump led the runner-up by about 30 percentage points.
As I told Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump is the Republican nominee. Anyone who feels disturbed by this must overcome it. He will win again in New Hampshire this month (although the margin may not be as large as in Iowa). He'll win again in South Carolina next month. The race will actually end before Super Tuesday on March 5. In my view, it is now over.
The media doesn't want to admit this because networks need to create hype to attract attention. Pundits desperately want people to watch them play out a phony election drama.
The truth is, we know who the No. 1 pick will be. The No. 2 pick doesn't matter, not even for vice president. A Trump victory in Iowa will only strengthen his momentum.
If you look at the country overall, Trump has 61% support among Republicans, according to RealClear Politics. DeSantis and Haley hover around 12 percent. Anyone who believes that either of them will somehow be able to turn around a nearly 50-point deficit is delusional.
There is a simple explanation why Trump has attracted so much support. Trump is not just a candidate. Trump is the leader of a national movement for the American people to take back power from the establishment. This is why all the establishment's attacks do not work on the Americans. Every time Trump is attacked in court or in the media, he becomes stronger. People see a corrupt institution desperately trying to protect itself – despite the will of the people.
Eight years after its invention, the Russian collusion hoax is back to strike the establishment. The American people now realize that this was a complete lie concocted by the Democrats and the Washington establishment to prevent a candidate (later president) from taking power from them. This rejection of large central bureaucratic government control has been building for decades. Trump was just the voice expressing this clearly.
Iowa used to be a tough place to campaign in the Republican caucus. She was moderate and comfortable with the bureaucratic system that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had in place and grown for 91 years. This has clearly changed. Republicans now hold every statewide elected office in Iowa except one (the state auditor is a Democrat). Republicans also hold all federal offices – and a large majority of the state legislature.
President Trump just won by a historically large margin in a multi-candidate field, and he will continue to win.
For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolicy and made available via RealClearWire.
